Directors & Officers Insurance and Financial Institutions

Robin Simon LLP has a leading Directors & Officers (“D&O”) and Financial Institutions (“FI”) practice. Chambers UK Guide has highlighted this part of our practice as being “of particular note” and having “extensive experience”. This experience extends from the large multinational banking disputes to instructions arising out of SME and financial advisor liabilities. It covers the whole range of services from claims and disputes, insurance coverage issues to regulatory and disciplinary matters, together with policy drafting and advice (including D& O, PI, Bankers’ Blanket Bond, Fidelity, Computer Crime, Employment Practices, Initial Public Offering and Warranty & Indemnity).

Our partners have been instructed in a number of high-value, complex disputes in the UK, Europe and internationally, which has given them unique experience in this area. Not being tied to any fixed network of foreign lawyers, we are free to choose the best specialists in the particular area we require and over the years have built up extensive contacts with lawyers across the World. We are also free from the conflicts of interest that beset many of the larger corporate firms which often prevent them from taking instructions in the larger, more sensitive banking disputes.

Our clients include many of the major players in the UK, US and European insurance and financial markets. We regularly deal with FTSE, NASDAQ, AIM companies in headline cases. At this level, even when coverage issues arise, we are fully alive to the importance of the relationship between the insurers and their customers and where appropriate can play an important role in preserving and enhancing that relationship. We also have experience in acting as defence counsel where there are no coverage issues and hold regular seminars for insureds, highlighting risk management issues.

A number of our partners and lawyers have been invited to lecture on D&O/FI issues in the UK, in the USA and on the Continent.

Recent examples of our work

• Coverage advice arising out of FSA enforcements.
• Acting for insurers on a claim concerning multiple frauds relating to foreign exchange dealing transactions worth £7.6 million together with other similar claims on the fidelity section of a Bankers Blanket Bond Policy.
• Advising insurers on coverage issues arising from claims against company directors alleging responsibility for deaths caused in a major disaster.
• Acting for insurers on an a £85 million coverage claim on a Bankers’ Blanket Bond and a related D&O policy arising out of the collapse of two associated foreign banks, where there were arbitration proceedings in England and parallel litigation in two other European countries.
• Acting for insurers on a claim concerning derivative transactions.
• Acting for the insurers of a bank [on a £3.8 million claim] on the PI coverage issues arising from the investment of tax revenues in high risk securities.
• Acting for the insurers of a bank on issues arising out of the Holocaust.
• Drafting an LLP D&O wording for major insurance company.

For more information please contact Michael Robin or Jacquetta Castle.